"In Everything....Give Thanks!...
Generally, Christians understand that giving thanks is good and right.
Though we don't do it often enough, it's easy to have a grateful heart for food and shelter, love and hope, health and peace. But what about the hard stuff, the stuff that darkens your world and wounds you to the quick? Just what is this "everything" business?
It's the hook, It's the key. Everything is the word on which this whole powerful command from Paul to the thessalonians stands and has its being.
Please don't misunderstand, the word thanks is crucial. But a deeper spiritual truth, I believe lies in giving thanks in ...everything!
In loss of all kinds. In illness. In depression. In grief. In failure. And, of course, in health and peace, success and happiness. In everything.
There'll be times when you wonder how you can possibly thank Him for something that turns your life upside down. Let us, then, at times like these, give thanks on faith alone...obedient, trusting, hoping, believing.
Perhaps you remember the young boy that was kidnapped and beaten and thrown in prison, yet rose up as Joseph the King, ruler of nations, able to say to his brothers, with a spirit of forgiveness, 'You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, that many lives might be spared'. Better still, remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered agonies we can't begin to imagine, fulfilling God's will that you and I might have everlasting life.
Some of us have been in trying circumstances these last months, unsettling, unremitting, even we sometimes think, unbearable. Dear God, we pray, stop this! Fix that! Bless us - and step on it!
I admit to you that although I often thank God for my blessings, even the smallest, I haven't thanked Him for my afflictions.
I know the 5th chapter of Thessalonians pretty well, yet it just hadn't occurred to me to actually take Him up on this notion. I've been too busy begging Him to lead me out of the valley and onto the mountaintop. After all, I have work to do, I have things to accomplish...
I want to tell you that I started thanking Him for something that grieves me deeply. And I'm committed to continue thanking Him in this hard thing no matter how desperate it might become and I'm going to begin looking for the good in it. Whether God caused it or permitted it, we can rest assured - there is great good in it.
Why have I decided to take these four words as a personal commission? Here's the entire 18th verse:
"In everything give thanks...for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
His will concerning you. His will concerning me. This thing which I've taken as a commission intrigues me. I want to see where it goes, where it leads. I pray you will be called to do the same. Lets look once more at the four words God is saying to us...by looking at what our obedience to them will say to God.
Our obedience will say, "Father, I don't know why You're causing, or allowing this hard thing to happen, but I am going to give thanks in it because You ask me to. I'm going to trust You to have a purpose for it that I can't know and may never know. Bottom line, You're God, - and that's good enough for me." . . .
There are of course many more words in the first letter to the Thessalonians. Here are just a few:
Pray without ceasing.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Quench not the Spirit.
These words too contain holy counsel and absolute truth.....
I know I posted awhile back on 1 Thess 5:16-18:
Generally, Christians understand that giving thanks is good and right.
Though we don't do it often enough, it's easy to have a grateful heart for food and shelter, love and hope, health and peace. But what about the hard stuff, the stuff that darkens your world and wounds you to the quick? Just what is this "everything" business?
It's the hook, It's the key. Everything is the word on which this whole powerful command from Paul to the thessalonians stands and has its being.
Please don't misunderstand, the word thanks is crucial. But a deeper spiritual truth, I believe lies in giving thanks in ...everything!
In loss of all kinds. In illness. In depression. In grief. In failure. And, of course, in health and peace, success and happiness. In everything.
There'll be times when you wonder how you can possibly thank Him for something that turns your life upside down. Let us, then, at times like these, give thanks on faith alone...obedient, trusting, hoping, believing.
Perhaps you remember the young boy that was kidnapped and beaten and thrown in prison, yet rose up as Joseph the King, ruler of nations, able to say to his brothers, with a spirit of forgiveness, 'You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, that many lives might be spared'. Better still, remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered agonies we can't begin to imagine, fulfilling God's will that you and I might have everlasting life.
Some of us have been in trying circumstances these last months, unsettling, unremitting, even we sometimes think, unbearable. Dear God, we pray, stop this! Fix that! Bless us - and step on it!
I admit to you that although I often thank God for my blessings, even the smallest, I haven't thanked Him for my afflictions.
I know the 5th chapter of Thessalonians pretty well, yet it just hadn't occurred to me to actually take Him up on this notion. I've been too busy begging Him to lead me out of the valley and onto the mountaintop. After all, I have work to do, I have things to accomplish...
I want to tell you that I started thanking Him for something that grieves me deeply. And I'm committed to continue thanking Him in this hard thing no matter how desperate it might become and I'm going to begin looking for the good in it. Whether God caused it or permitted it, we can rest assured - there is great good in it.
Why have I decided to take these four words as a personal commission? Here's the entire 18th verse:
"In everything give thanks...for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
His will concerning you. His will concerning me. This thing which I've taken as a commission intrigues me. I want to see where it goes, where it leads. I pray you will be called to do the same. Lets look once more at the four words God is saying to us...by looking at what our obedience to them will say to God.
Our obedience will say, "Father, I don't know why You're causing, or allowing this hard thing to happen, but I am going to give thanks in it because You ask me to. I'm going to trust You to have a purpose for it that I can't know and may never know. Bottom line, You're God, - and that's good enough for me." . . .
There are of course many more words in the first letter to the Thessalonians. Here are just a few:
Pray without ceasing.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Quench not the Spirit.
These words too contain holy counsel and absolute truth.....
I know I posted awhile back on 1 Thess 5:16-18:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
This was just too good not to add and I wanted it here so I can always come back and read it. It also reminded me of Pastor Cecil's quote "God said it, I believe it, and that's good enough for me!"
3 comments:
:) It's good to have you back!
It's amazing how sometimes God will use something as casual as reading blogs to speak to you.
This was an amazing post, exactly what I needed to read.
I'm at a place in my life where I really need to remember to be thankful. This definitely reminded me that.
Thank you for this.
LOL.... Yes, I cried again....
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